Analysis on the monitoring results of occupational health of workers who leaving their posts from small-sized coal mines / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

Objective@#To explore the health status of the workers who were leaving their posts from small-scaled coal mines, and to provide evidence for coal workers’ pneumoconiosis prevention and safeguard measures.@*Methods@#In 2017, 1008 workers from the coal mine in a town were monitored for occupational health, and the effects of working type, age were analyzed and evaluated.@*Results@#The health monitoring of the mine workers in this town showed high rate of the abnormal detection of respiratory system and cardiovascular system, the incidence rate of pneumoconiosis was up to 34.82%. The incidence of pneumoconiosis in different types of work was not the same (P<0.05) , and the incidence of tunneling workers' pneumoconiosis was the highest. Pneumoconiosis detection rate increased with age (P<0.05) . The difference of pneumoconiosis detection rate among workers of different ages was statistically significant (P<0.05) , among which the pneumoconiosis detection rate was the highest in the group of 40 years old.@*Conclusion@#The pneumoconiosis is serious in small coal mines in this town. It should strengthen the prevention of diseases such as respiratory system and cardiovascular system of coal mine workers, and pay attention to their health management and prolong the life of patients with pneumoconiosis.

An Evidence-Based Multidisciplinary Practice Guideline to Reduce the Workload due to Lifting for Preventing Work-Related Low Back Pain

We developed an evidence-based practice guideline to support occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals in assessing the risk due to lifting and in selecting effective preventive measures for low back pain (LBP) in the Netherlands. The guideline was developed at the request of the Dutch government by a project team of experts and OSH professionals in lifting and work-related LBP. The recommendations for risk assessment were based on the quality of instruments to assess the risk on LBP due to lifting. Recommendations for interventions were based on a systematic review of the effects of worker- and work directed interventions to reduce back load due to lifting. The quality of the evidence was rated as strong (A), moderate (B), limited (C) or based on consensus (D). Finally, eight experts and twenty-four OSH professionals commented on and evaluated the content and the feasibility of the preliminary guideline. For risk assessment we recommend loads heavier than 25 kg always to be considered a risk for LBP while loads less than 3 kg do not pose a risk. For loads between 3-25 kg, risk assessment shall be performed using the Manual handling Assessment Charts (MAC)-Tool or National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) lifting equation. Effective work oriented interventions are patient lifting devices (Level A) and lifting devices for goods (Level C), optimizing working height (Level A) and reducing load mass (Level C). Ineffective work oriented preventive measures are regulations to ban lifting without proper alternatives (Level D). We do not recommend worker-oriented interventions but consider personal lift assist devices as promising (Level C). Ineffective worker-oriented preventive measures are training in lifting technique (Level A), use of back-belts (Level A) and pre-employment medical examinations (Level A). This multidisciplinary evidence-based practice guideline gives clear criteria whether an employee is at risk for LBP while lifting and provides an easy-reference for (in)effective risk reduction measures based on scientific evidence, experience, and consensus among OSH experts and practitioners.

A Survey for Computerized Health Information System at Occupational Health Care Centers / 대한의료정보학회지

In order to evaluate the status of health information management for occupational health care center, we surveyed the computerized health information system using questionnaires form July 15 to August 31 in 1997. Among the 105 centers, 53 centers answered. The results were as follows; 1. Twenty nine centers(54.7%) had computerized information system. Most of them have operated this system for 5 years ago, and the users were administrators, doctors, nurses, and hygienists. The most of twenty nine centers which had introduced the health information system developed the software programs by themselves(41.4%) or with computer companies(58.6%). The main reasons that the centers introduced the computerized health information system were to do financial work and manage the occupational data; including medical examination, environmental evaluation, and other statistics. The problems in operation of computerized information system were low capacity level of memory, non-transferability to other programs and high cost. They demanded the more advanced level of functional diversity, continuity, and accuracy in data management. 2. Sixty nine percent of the centers which had the computerized health information system and forty six percent of the centers which had not it had plans to extend or introduce the system. They presumed that they would spend the 10-50 million Won to do that. 3. Necessary were the advanced computer program which included the comprehensive occupational health service, transferability to other programs, linkage with other occupational health care centers, worksites and government information system.